Overcome
by memories7
Summary: This a story about what happens when Kakashi's peers and student dies. A bit depressing, though Kakashi will "discover" Sakura later...
1. Scroll of Destruction

All of the leaf shinobi were gathered together, but none seemed happy. An announcement had just come in. The Lady Hokage, along with all but one of her protectors, had been killed. The one, despite retaining many injuries, had made it as far as the gate to Konoha before passing out.

The guards had seen movement outside the gate, but when the cause of the movement did not appear, they became suspicious. One was sent down to see what was going on, while the others watched from the wall. There they found Kakashi, a scroll clutched tightly to his chest, bleeding. The guard called one of his comrades down, and the two of them brought Kakashi to the med building.

Kakashi was badly injured, and the medics had to get to the wounds, but it was hard when he wouldn't let go of the scroll. Even in sleep he clutched it tightly. Finally, the medics woke him.

"You're in Konoha, Kakashi. Konoha. You can let the scroll go now." Upon seeing so many familiar faces, he reluctantly let go of the thing he had been holding.

"The… the Hokage…" he began, spitting blood. "The Hokage is dead. Please… be careful… with… the… scroll." But this was too much effort for him, and he passed out once again. The medics were quick to treat him, but only after one was sent to the Captain of the Guard with the scroll and the news.

So there they were, gathered at the hospital, watching Kakashi and waiting for the information that had caused the meeting to be called.

"The scroll was the scroll of destruction. It had fallen into the hands of the Mist Ninjas and our ninjas' mission was to retrieve it, while allegedly bringing our late Lady Hokage to meet with their leader. However, their goal was found out, and the entire party, with the exclusion of Kakashi, was killed. Kakashi carried it to our very gate before allowing himself to pass out from his wounds. If we had not spotted him immediately, he would have already been dead. This jounin, while younger than many of us, helped save not only our village, but all the villages and our way of life. That is why I have decided…" the Captain of the Guard said. "That Kakashi shall be our next Hokage." He continued through the murmurs. "Although it would normally be me or another of the more experienced Jounins who would succeed the Hokage in the event that, upon her death, she had not yet stated who would be her successor, I think we will all agree that he deserves this privilege."

At that moment Kakashi awoke. "What… what's going on?" he asked. "Why are you all here?"

As one, the shinobi bowed respectfully. "Welcome back, Hokage-sama."

"But… I thought…" He looked at the Captain in confusion.

"You are the new Hokage, Kakashi," said the Captain gently.

"It should be you," he said, then sat up slowly and painfully.

He started to say more, and then stopped. Finally, leaning back once again, he said, "I'm sorry, Naruto." Then he passed out.

* * *

The medics rushed towards his unconscious form, only to have him push them away. The shinobi were gone, and the medics watched with horrified amazement as the still-sleeping Kakashi began to talk.

"No," he muttered, then louder, and louder still. "No! NO!" The last had a tinge of desperation. "He's just a kid. He's just… T-" he began. And then his eyes opened. But his eyes were sightless. He was still asleep, but it seemed the time had changed because the name died on his lips.

"Take me! Take me instead! Take me, and let the boy go free!"

This was too much for the medics to watch. They woke him from his dream, wondering what he had seen, wondering what he had gone through.

"Call the Captain," the head medic said. "He'll want to hear Kakashi's story, and I think it's too important to wait."


	2. The story began

The story began. "I knew it was an important mission, but… I never expected this to happen. All we wanted was to avoid a war. We hoped for an easy resolution, but knew better than to expect that.

"But you already know all of this, so I guess I better start from when we left. We were expected, so thought that crossing the border would be easy, and indeed it was, although the border guards kept casting suspicious glances toward us. But we thought nothing of the glances. After all, in this day and age, everyone is suspicious. We were to learn our folly too late… but I go too far ahead. Everything was routine for the next three days. Then, in the darkness of that third night, we were ambushed.

"They used a portion of the scroll of destruction's spell to paralyze the camp. Only a few managed to fight the spell off, of which I was one of them. The enemy nins went straight for the Hokage, spreading death and destruction in their wake. We few who fought off the spell did our best to guard the Hokage, but all but me were utterly annihilated. I guess my sharigan eye must have helped to protect me, though I suffered from multiple burns. Then the real fighting started. I was cut up too badly to help much, but the spell of paralysis had worn off enough to let a few more free.

"They slaughtered the helpless and the fighting indiscriminately. The Hokage was shocked, so paralyzed by disbelief she couldn't even defend herself. A flying shuriken killed her.

"With the last Hokage's death, the nins grouped together again, then each headed off in a different direction to loot, maim, torture, and murder. They tied me to a tree, and then… and then…" here he broke down, looking to the Captain of the Guard for support. "Naruto, you know I had a promising youngster under my control named Tsuki, correct? They killed him, right in front of my eyes, but first they tortured him. It wasn't even to get information. It was just for fun. They killed him, and I was helpless to stop them, to protect him, just like I couldn't protect Obito. Naruto, they all die in the end!" He couldn't stop his voice from raising, couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"After a while, some of my chakra returned. I used it to cut my ropes, then went after the nins, having memorized the paralysis spell, as well as the burn spell that they had used upon my colleagues. I was barely able to catch them, weak as I was from blood loss.

"The paralysis worked for a few minutes, nothing more, but it was enough time to grab the scroll and kill them. You know the rest. I stumbled home, and they found me. So here I am, a Hokage, after I couldn't protect the last one. I could have saved them! Why did you make me Hokage, Naruto? You deserved it more than I did. WHY?" Then Kakashi collapsed.


End file.
